Comms and the World Cup

In the run up to the 2022 Men’s World Cup, our inaugural CIPR Sports Network event heard from Adrian Bevington, former Club England MD and Head of Communications at the FA, and former England international Owen Hargreaves. They shared thoughts on the upcoming tournament, their advice to players and gave us an insight into how the media landscape has progressed since the height of their involvement in the game.

Adrian, who was involved in the FA until 2015, was asked about the public’s sometimes unreasonable expectations surrounding the World Cup. He explained: “The landscape is very different now to what it was maybe 15 or 16 years ago. I think it is a far better landscape than what it was back then.

“We had a far more aggressive football media in my period… I don’t sense anymore that the chaos is there as it was. You go through phases, obviously, but I don’t think the frenzy is there as it was in the early 2000s.”

Owen shared some of his own experiences with the media, particularly surrounding the 2006 World Cup: “In this country we are very quick to judge people, very quick to critique people. I told them they should critique me at the end of the tournament, not before.

“I don’t tick every box; I was born in Canada, I played in Germany but that doesn’t make my dad any less English.

“When I wore that shirt, I wore it for the fans back home but also I was representing my family’s name. I thought it was such an honour. I felt like I had to do more because I felt so many people cared so much about the England team. My dad always said to me you have to leave everything out there, and I might play poorly, but I always gave it everything.”

Although a brutal media landscape is one often associated with English press, especially surrounding football, Owen said it was pretty similar in Germany. “People would come watch you train, there would be 10,000 people there and the press would watch. The press had really close access to the players and I got used to that.”

The 24/7 news cycle

In the last few years, the communications landscape surrounding football has become increasingly multifaceted with a 24/7 news cycle, wall-to-wall coverage, and social media allowing faceless opinions to be circulated constantly.

Despite this, Adrian believes "the players are in a great place now, they look like they are enjoying being with England. The culture and environment around the squad looks the best it has been. The media likes them and the public likes them too, which shows the level of engagement is where it needs to be.

“Gareth Southgate deserves a huge amount of praise for the way he has unlocked things and understood the media a lot better than other managers historically, being a lot more willing to engage the whole group."

He added: “My advice to any of the players would be, you have to do it in a way that they feel comfortable, they are all individuals. I think social media, with all its negative challenges, it also provides the players the opportunity to have a voice that they didn’t have previously.

“Now they can be human beings if they’d like to be, present themselves with a much broader personality and give themselves the opportunity to correct something if it's not true.”

On the other hand, when Owen discussed the implications of this new media landscape, he drew on his experience on managing the media and the effects it can have on performance. 

“What made me perform well in the 2006 World Cup is I didn’t turn on the TV, I didn’t read the paper, I did not want myself to be clouded by people’s opinions that did not know me, that were critiquing me. 

“That’s what you see on social media, there’s no face-to-face and people just slaughter each other which is ridiculous.”

Although Owen appreciates the importance of the players using social media to their advantage and to help control their narrative, his advice was to block it out as much as possible.

“It’s noise and all you can do is to try and control the noise, control the variables that you can control. People are going to have their opinions and say what they like, but whether you allow that to get on top of you is a different matter.

“Obviously you want to play well and want everyone to praise you but sometimes you aren’t going to play great. I think listening to all the noise, reading all the columns and comments, there is no way that is going to be beneficial for anyone. 

He added: "Control what you can control: your performance, your effort and your training. Switch off the comments section. Don’t listen to the good or the bad comments, just focus on your craft, it’s a beautiful opportunity, it’s a thing that can change your life. It doesn’t matter how many games you play in your life, fans are only going to remember five to 10 minutes from you. That’s just how it is, and these players have the opportunity to control that narrative. Go on and play the best game of your life.

“Control the noise, block out as much of it as you can and focus on your craft, and the good things will come.”

Player access

Adrian shared his insights from a managerial and communications background. While agreeing with Owen that this is important for the players, he also emphasised the importance of fan engagement, and that it is the job of the communications team and wider management to ensure the public still have access to the players.

Owen is now a pundit on BT Sport. He takes great responsibility in his role knowing the implications and effects media scrutiny can have.

“I still try to treat my job like I was one of those guys I was critiquing, as I have been on the other end of it. I’d like to do my job to the point where players, coaches and fans will go ‘yes, I don’t agree with everything he is saying, but it is in a constructive way’. I have a job to do and analyse the game, but I think we are better off working together,” he said.

At the time of our event and in the run up to the World Cup, many countries had made their opinions clear through bold and divisive campaigns, such as England and Wales deciding to wear the OneLove rainbow armband and Denmark’s sponsors dulling down their logos. 

Adrian shared his insight on the challenges of implementing a communication strategy for Qatar considering the controversy and sensitivity associated with the tournament.

“They would have had a lot of discussions about this as it has been on the agenda for such a long time, whether it is the worker’s rights issues or the various issues around LGTBQ. Anything concerning the FA’s position and the player’s position would have been discussed in great detail.

“I see that the players are more empowered than ever before to formulate their own position. Unless it's something that is going to cause an untenable problem for the FA, the players will be encouraged to position themselves as they see appropriate, and so far they haven’t done a bad job,” he said.

[On Monday 21 November, seven national teams including England, Wales and Denmark announced that they wouldn’t be wearing the armbands after FIFA warned that they would face sporting sanctions.]

Finally, when asked about his World Cup predictions, Owen believes Argentina, Brazil and France and the favourites, but they have to be wary of the likes of Portugal, Germany and England.

“I’m excited, but also anxious, I know what it is like for the players, it’s always the finest margins and it’s not always the greatest team that wins, it’s about the chemistry and I think England have that. 

“I want to see Gareth being brave, and I hope the boys do well.”

Watch Owen Hargreaves and Adrian Bevington in conversation at the CIPR Sports Network event.

Featured image by Kovop58 on iStock